I’ve said for years that one of the main reasons ObamaCare passed was because they did a great job of confusing Health Insurance with Healthcare financing, or Healthcare. I recently ran across the attached article that does a great job of addressing this point and wanted to share it. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
Have a great day! Jeff Evans, Director, Benefit Services jevans@healthplan.org
On March 23, 2017 in Affordable Act Care, Blog, Health Insurance, Healthcare Costs, Healthcare ReformHealth Insurance is NOT Health Care
By: Ron E Peck, Esq.
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has provided its assessment of the American Health Care Act, and already Congressional would-be supporters of the law are jumping ship. The CBO’s analysis resulted in what is being called a “devastating blow” to the proposed law. Primary among the negative reviews is the CBO analysis that predicted about 24 million fewer people would be insured by 2026 under the GOP bill, and that premiums would skyrocket for low-income Americans and the elderly. Yet this is exactly what (some) supporters of the proposed law expected. You likely heard about White House budget director, Mick Mulvaney’s remarks, shared with ABC News chief anchor George Stephanopoulos. He said that critics worry too much about “getting people coverage,” and that the purpose of the law should instead be, “… focused on getting people affordable health care.”
It’s as if the two sides are talking past each other. If you value securing health insurance for everyone in the nation, then the CBO’s report should scare you. If you care more about securing affordable, accessible, health care for everyone – then the whole discussion over “insurance” should be irrelevant to you. Why? Because Health Insurance is NOT Health Care.
President Obama knew this, once. On the evening of September 9, 2009, President Obama advised a joint session of Congress, that the amount spent on health care is the root cause of skyrocketing insurance premiums. He said, “We spend one and a half times more per person on health care than any other country, but we aren’t any healthier for it. This is one of the reasons that insurance premiums have gone up three times faster than wages.”
Yet… when the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (“PPACA,” “ACA,” or “ObamaCare”) was revealed, that fundamental problem was essentially ignored, in exchange for a law whose primary mission was merely to get everyone insured.
So… the money comes out of a different pocket, but what are we doing to reduce the amount actually being spent? Nothing. If I go to a baseball game with my wife, and I buy a beer for $10, whether I pay for it with my debit card, a wad of cash my grandmother sent me for my birthday, or my wife’s credit card (thanks honey), it doesn’t make it any cheaper. $10 for a beer is outrageous, but not as outrageous as the cost of health care.
Just as health insurance is not health care, so too health insurance reform is not health care reform. Yet, because the ACA got so much press, and many previously uninsured individuals did secure insurance (giving us all the warm and fuzzies), the result was a nationwide misconception that affordable insurance equates with affordable health care. For many, ObamaCare is therefore viewed as a success because millions of uninsured Americans are now insured.
Yet, insurance isn’t a magical money-tree. Like a college student wielding his first credit card, a newly insured America forgets that “someone” has to pay, eventually. What you buy – with your own money, or with insurance – and how much it costs, still matters. Insurance just passes the buck – to other insureds, and to you, when the time comes to renew. It blows my mind. People are involved in car accidents, get out of their vehicle, examine the minor damage, and agree NOT TO REPORT IT TO THEIR INSURANCE, because they DON’T WANT THEIR PREMIUM TO INCREASE! People actually choose to pay for car repairs out of pocket, because they fear insurance premium increases and want to save their insurance for “when they really need it.” Yet, if we treated auto insurance the way we treat health insurance, we’d be outraged that insurance doesn’t pay for the air in my tires, or the dancing hula girl on my dashboard.
Providing insurance (meaning, digging into another pocket to pay for healthcare) didn’t reduce the cost of said care. In fact, in many instances, having new, direct access to deeper pockets incentivized providers to increase their rates – and why not? Instead of balance billing an uninsured patient, I now have direct access to the deep pockets of a carrier? Sign me up!
Steven I. Weissman, a former hospital president, stated that, “Rates must be published in a uniform format such as industry standard CPT codes or a percentage of Medicare rates. Every citizen would be empowered to search any medical procedure online and see pricing for all providers within X miles. It would be as easy and familiar as checking the price of any other goods or services;” (http://www.orlandosentinel.com/opinion/os-ed-health-care-prices-myword-061015-20150609-story.html; https://www.change.org/p/end-predatory-healthcare-pricing).
In addition to addressing the actual cost of care, we need to be honest about what insurance is, and is not; as well as what it is, and is not, meant to cover. Insurance only works when the insurer is allowed to assess risk, and through underwriting, quote premiums and offer limits adjusted to the individual policy holder. Forcing a carrier or health plan to accept $1,000 in premium for coverage that we know, with certainty, will cost the carrier $1,000 is outrageous and – in my mind – amounts to a form of eminent domain or a governmental taking.
When insurance is required to cover people without regard for risk, forcibly collecting money from all to pay for benefits afforded to some more than others; with limits placed upon carriers regarding how much they can charge, what they must provide, and more, insurance ceases to be insurance and becomes an agent of wealth distribution, a.k.a. a tax collector.
A promise to pay for all but certain future costs eliminates the entire reason to engage in the business of insurance. It’s the reason why auto insurance doesn’t pay for oil changes, tire rotations, or gas changes!
The time has come to be honest with each other and ourselves. What do we hope to accomplish with health care reform? What is the easiest, most direct way to achieve that goal? Do that. Commandeering an entire private industry to camouflage a tax because politicians are too scared to openly admit that is what they are doing – taxing the nation to raise capital for the purpose of paying out of control health care costs – just doesn’t work for me.
